A/N: Hi Everyone. I'm still not dead! And I promise I've been working on a few projects at once which is... not the best way to work but if I get stuck on one thing I can work on something else and ACCOMPLISH NOTHING! It's great...
Anyway, finally got Chapter 2 to a point that I'm happy with. Decided to do drunk Maya and Krieg being cute together. They won't always be cute when they're drunk. It'll probably mostly be when they're drunk by themselves, but I promise there will be more mischief in the future. Especially with the rest of the crew.
"I gotta say, snow and ice? Not a fan," Maya complained as she rubbed her arms. She hadn't really recognized the caverns' cold when they were fighting through psychos and spiderants; but now that they were turning in, the adrenaline subsided. Along with the warmth.
"BIGGER BLAZE. Warmth for the lady!"
Maya chuckled. "I'm game. Let's go find some more wood."
Krieg gently stopped her and pushed her back into her seat by her shoulders. "A wolf hunts alone and the pack eats."
Maya breathed a laugh. "Krieg... I don't know how to tell you this, but wolves hunt as a pack and eat as a pack."
Krieg furrowed his brow. "A family of MONSTERS?"
"I wouldn't call them monsters... but yeah. They work together and feed each other. Like the team. We all murder and we all divvy up loot, you know? So we'll go find wood and supplies together, alright?" Maya stood up and gently knocked on Krieg's chest as she passed him.
Krieg followed her wordlessly as they went to search for wood.
They ended up demolishing a few of the bandits' lean-to's and crates for enough firewood to create a blaze to delight Krieg. Maya didn't mind as the excursion warmed up her blood. Krieg was delighted by his own ability to rip wooden boards apart with his bear hands. While kicking apart a crate, Maya heard Krieg chuckle mischievously. She turned to look at him to find an evil gleam in his eye while he held a bottle of dark liquor in his hand.
"Oh nooo..." she drew out sarcastically as a grin grew on her face.
Krieg laughed maniacally and waved the bottle in the air. "THE PACK HUNTS AND THE PACK EAAATS!"
Two bottles later, Krieg watched as Maya took another swig of whatever passed for alcohol for this batch of bandits and laughed as she cringed. "Nope, nope it's not getting any better after it hits," Maya coughed out.
Krieg laughed harder and took the bottle back. "A SEWAGE FIRE OF BLOOD FOR THE BRAIN!"
Maya paled. "Are you kidding me? They use blood in this?" she exclaimed.
Ah SHIT. She's too drunk to understand us. Quick. Give me the reigns!
Krieg growled in response and tried to put the words together by himself.
But before Krieg could find the words to retract his words, Maya waved him off. "Wait, sorry. It's a little- ugh. Don't worry about it. Man, these bandits suck at making alcohol. The monks weren't bad at it back where I'm from. You weren't supposed to enjoy alcohol, but man. Some monks really made an art of it. Probably wasted on a 15 year old kid, but a girl's gotta do something to keep from going insane."
You're going to screw it up again, idiot. She's trying to talk about herself, and you're going to ruin this for us. Just give me the reigns!
Krieg nodded quietly, suddenly self conscious.
Maya laughed and nudged Krieg with her shoulder. "Oh c'mon big guy. Don't go getting self-conscious on me now! The point of the alcohol is so we relax a bit more. Warm up and get comfortable, you know?" Krieg grumbled a bit, so Maya continued. "Alright, I'm sorry. Maybe you didn't want to go into the whole life story thing. I get it. It's a little... it's a little deep and we don't really know each other. That's cool. We can-"
"I-" Krieg started, but the second voice in his head kept getting him confused with warnings and snide advice.
"Hey, whoa, Krieg. You're alright."
"A split tongue and two too many words. But pretty lady speak!"
"Pre- oh. Wow. OK. Um... thanks? I guess I should say thanks, but YEAH. So. I... I grew up with a bunch of monks on a different planet, you know? They're supposed to be zen and peaceful, right? I mean some of them were cool. Some of them were douchebags. But they all talked a lot. Kind of like what I'm doing now, you know? Wow maybe some of them were drunk when they talked? It would explain a lot to be honest... I don't- yeah. Um. So.. they used to boss me around a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. Maya do this. Maya stand here. Maya don't say that! Maya come punish these people for some bullshit crime we determined to make sure that we stay in power! Oh, wait they wouldn't even call me MAYA. They would call me 'child.' Child. Can you believe them? One of the most powerful beings in the galaxy and they would call me child. Jeez... it's just... that was supposed to be my home, you know? But... after they went too far I came out here. I'd heard about Pandora and that there was a siren out here. Maybe I'd learn about myself. And now I keep finding these siren books everywhere like they're candy. So I guess you could say I'm in the right place. And you're here too which has been really cool... but..." Maya sighed and held out her hand. "Give that bottle back before I start getting embarrassed."
Krieg passed the bottle back and Maya took a long grimacing swig of the bottle.
"Did you... really want to hear all of that about me?" she asked after another moment of the campfire crackling.
"Fields of flowers fertilized by the battlefield's gore galore," Krieg mumbled without hesitation.
Maya chuckled. "I'd never thought about it like that. I've just been... angry. Ever since I've been on Athenas I've been.. angry. I mean, I guess my childhood was cool. The monks didn't really mistreat me or anything. But I don't know. It's been great really getting out there. With you, and the rest of the team. Fighting on my own against some psychopathic asshole. ...no offense."
Krieg chuckled this time and downed the rest of the bottle before throwing it in the fire.
Sounds like she really didn't have her own life back home...
"A world of new skulls to explore and spleens to eviscerate!"
"Yeah. And it's been a time. Getting tricked into a train that explodes. Getting bossed around by a weird little robot... getting saved by a psycho. Yeah. Definitely a weird week. It's exactly what I wanted. And how about you? Is this what you thought you were signing up for when you decided to get on the train?"
Krieg chuckled. "A bomb-strapped birthday present on the third Friday in purgatory..."
Maya threw her head back suddenly and let out a roaring laugh, startling Krieg. His sudden fear seemed to just feed her laughter as she slid down from her seat onto the ground besides him. Her laughter continued until she was wheezing and gripping her sides. Her wheezing turned into gasps for air that slowly forced the laughter to quiet. As she calmed down, she sat back and put her elbow on Krieg's leg to steady herself. "Man. I'm so sorry I... the third Friday." Another bout of laughter sprayed out of her mouth as she pressed her forehead against the arm resting on Krieg's leg. "Oh man. I'm sorry it's just... it's just so specific. Ugh my cheeks hurt..." Maya sat back on the debris they were both using as a bench and squished her cheeks together.
Unbeknownst to Maya, despite her outfit having no cleavage... seeing her from above... and the image of the back of her head on his thigh...
Don't think about it. You put that thought right back where it came from.
Krieg made a pained sound and pointed his eyes up towards the cave ceiling.
"Hey, you good?" Maya asked.
"uh-HUHHHHHH" was Krieg's strained response.
Maya smiled and laid back against the debris, resting both elbows on the surface behind her.
Krieg's good eye shot back down to the forearm she had oh so casually laid on top of his hand that had been digging into the seat. He froze, his mind racing.
She's doing that on purpose. No doubt about it. Smooth. Casual and smooth. Hey, idiot, try relaxing your hand...
Krieg, for the second time tonight, listened to that sane voice in his head. Maya smiled at the fire blazing in front of them and didn't move her arm.
"I'm glad."
A/N: Are we still doing notes at the end of the chapter? I'm doing notes at the end of the chapters...
Hope you all enjoyed! I hope that was cute but still to the characters. Flustered Maya felt... awkward to me to be honest. But it kept things moving. I'm thinking a kidnapping plot for the next chapters. Just to make things fun. Thank you all for reading and for the reviews! I really appreciate it. I think now that I'm more into the swing of things this will be easier to write. And if I get lost on things again, I'll at least give you guys a heads up.